Director of Operations at Sydney Trains and Sam Sharma at St James Station with Tony Eid. Picture: Bradley Hunter Source: News Corp Australia
THEY are the remnants of past grand rail schemes that still exist under the city's streets and parks.
These forgotten tunnels and station platforms, built decades ago to cater for a much larger suburban network, never heard the rumble of a train's approach.
And never will.
As the state government prepares to spend billions of dollars building three new underground stations in the CBD and a tunnel under the Harbour, The Sunday Telegraph was given exclusive access to this underground labyrinth.
The disused platforms and tunnels, that emerge from St James Station, were built but never used after plans had to be put on hold due to the effects of the Great Depression and World War II.
Sydney Trains also granted access to the so-called "ghost platforms" at Central Railway.
John Bradfield, the man who designed the suburban electric network, the City Circle underground and the Harbour Bridge, wanted lines to Bondi, Randwick, Balmain and the Northern Beaches, among others.
When the current City Circle and Central to North Sydney lines were being built in the 1920s, Bradfield added small sections of tunnel to cater for the these other lines, if they were ever built.
There are disused rail tunnels under St James and Central stations, Sydney. Picture: Bradley Hunter Source: News Corp Australia
Now, two single line tunnels running from St James Station, each a kilometre long, lie beneath Hyde Park for the proposed Bondi and Randwick lines.
North of St James, a double-track tunnel was built for the Balmain line. It now sits under Macquarie Street and terminates under the Botanic Gardens.
The tunnels run into two centre platforms at St James, complete with tiles, now hidden from the public gaze.
Sydney Trains director of operations Tony Eid, who acted as guide, said the tunnels were converted into bomb shelters in World War II.
At Central, Mr Eid took The Sunday Telegraph on to platforms 26 and 27, built at the same time as the Eastern Suburbs line, which opened in 1979. The platforms, just concrete shells, sit above the underground platforms 24 and 25 on the Eastern Suburbs and Illawarra lines.
"There was talk that they might one day be used for a line to Randwick or a direct line across to the Harbour Bridge," Mr Eid said.
Ghost tunnels under St James station in Sydney Source: News Corp Australia
Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian said the spare tunnels bypass the central spine of the CBD and head in the wrong direction to provide any benefits to the construction of the SRT.
"The proposed alignment of the second harbour crossing and SRT through the CBD will provide relief for customers using busy Town Hall and Wynyard stations," she said.
The $8.3 billion North West Rail Link is the first stage of SRT, which will be Australia's first fully-automated railway network and have new state-of-the-art stations and world class customer and safety innovations like platform screen doors."
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